Chapter 56

  As soon as Cheng Zhou was pushed into the treatment room, he heard a familiar song.

  The music plays with a hissing sound, the female singer's singing style is like that of an old Shanghai songstress from a bygone era. The lyrics are clearly eulogizing the beauty of love, but her voice is full of melancholy, as if a lonely woman is lamenting in an empty boudoir.

  He actually didn't know the name of this song and who the singer was, but this song just sounded familiar to him, as if he had heard it many times before.

  Cheng Zhou walked up to the examination table and turned off the old-fashioned radio on it.

  This consulting room is also very old-fashioned, just like the old hospital he often went to when he was a child. On the consultation desk, there is still a "four not alike" character carved out by him with a pencil sharpener.

  Cheng Zhou's fingers brushed over the Four Unlikes.

  Suddenly, he recalled many past events that he thought had long been forgotten.

  When he was a kid, he seemed to get sick all the time and would often run to the hospital every other day. His mom had to work and take care of him at the same time, so she was under a lot of pressure and would often sneak into the bathroom to cry secretly.

  That's right, this song was also one of his mom's most frequently listened songs in the past. He often heard his mom playing this song at home.

  His father was a very vague figure in his memory, the only thing he remembered was a back view. He heard that he left home when he was just over three years old, no one knew why he left his wife and son, maybe his mother knew, but she never told him the reason.

  When he was a kid, whenever he mentioned his father, his mother would fly into a rage and after being beaten several times, he never mentioned the words "old dad" again.

  His mother later remarried a doctor who often treated him.

  That man was also remarried, much older than his mother. When his mother married him, her son was already in college.

  When he was young, he didn't understand things and made a fuss about not letting his mother remarry, then...

  Chengzhou covered his eyes, and he remembered the look in his mother's eyes when they quarreled that day. Her gaze was so cold, annoyed, and even hateful!

  Although that glance was fleeting, his mother soon began to coax him, but he was still intimidated by his mother's gaze and didn't dare make another sound. At that time, he always felt that if he dared to make another sound, his mother might abandon him like the father whose appearance he could no longer remember.

  It's strange that since his mother remarried, he hasn't been sick much, as if the gaze of his mother that day had scared away the illness that had been clinging to him.

  That was the only time his mother looked at him with that kind of gaze, before and after that she was like an ordinary mother, would hit him, scold him, nag him, but also care about him.

  He knew that his tuition and pocket money were paid by his mother with her own salary, his stepfather was not very fond of him, and his stepfather had a son of his own, and later even had a grandson.

  His uncle's son was not bad to him either, but when he was in junior high school, he let him sign a document giving up his family property, and on the day he turned 18, he asked him to sign again.

  And his mother also made a will early on, stating that all the houses and savings under her name belong to him.

  So he never got angry with his stepfather and son, nor did he feel unfair. The two families lived together, if they couldn't make up for it with feelings, it would be easier to settle accounts clearly.

  Cheng Zhou put down his hand covering his eyes and let out a soft sigh.

  He didn't know whether it was a human or a ghost that brought him here, nor did he know the other's intention, but he hated the other's probing and testing of him.

  Cheng Zhou looked around and finally fixed his gaze on the white door curtain that separated the inside from the outside.

  There is someone...or something behind the door curtain.

  "Who are you? What business do you have bringing me here?" Cheng Zhou said boldly, looking at the door curtain.

  "...you've grown up." A deep male voice sounded from behind the door curtain.

  "Do you know me?" Cheng Zhou took a step towards the door curtain.

  The middle-aged man laughed and said, "You are my son, how could I possibly not recognize you?"

  Cheng Zhou,"...Hah! Hah!"

  "It's normal that you don't believe me, I didn't expect you to anyway. I came here to warn you about something." The male voice said calmly.

  "What's wrong?"

  "You're very dangerous."

  "Thanks, I'm in danger almost every day now. Can you come out and talk? Honestly, I've forgotten what you look like, Mom didn't keep any photos of you either. Can you come out and let your son take a look at his great, long-absent, and mysterious father?"

  The baritone didn't mind the sarcasm in Cheng Chou's tone and said calmly, "I have a reason for doing so."

  "What kind of reason can make you scare your own son to death, and then abandon him when he's just a little bigger?" Cheng Chou had almost reached the edge of the door curtain, his inexplicable anger completely suppressing his fear, now he only wanted to see what the person behind the curtain looked like.

  "I don't ask you to understand..."

  Chengzhou lifted up the door curtain with one hand.

  A face with all five senses corroded appeared before his eyes!

  This face is not like a flat surface of a little monk, it originally had five senses, but the original five senses were as if they had been highly corroded by concentrated sulfuric acid, and the whole face became pockmarked.

  The nostrils were left with only black holes, the mouth exposed the gums and teeth, the eyelids stuck together became two lumps of tangled skin, and the ears were gone, leaving only two small pieces of dark red flesh.

  Cheng Zhou was so startled that he took a step back, and the entire door curtain was pulled down by him.

  "Dad!" A small hand grasped his wrist tightly.

  Cheng Zhou lowered his head and saw Hong Ye raising her head and smiling at him with a mischievous grin.

  "Afraid? What's there to be afraid of? I've become like this because of you." The man's mouth opened and closed, "You were a little devil since childhood, I wanted to stop you, but look at what you've turned me into."

  Cheng Zhou wanted to explain, but his throat only made a hissing sound.

  "I paid such a great price to barely seal you away, but look what you've done now, you've actually brought back the true Demon God."

  "Zhou Zhou..."

  Cheng Chou suddenly turned his head, and his mother was standing outside the clinic window, looking at him with pleading eyes.

  "Mom?"

  "Zhōu Zhōu, kill Red Leaf! Otherwise you will harm yourself, and also harm me, and more people! Kill him!"

  "Do you want to kill me?" Red Leaf tilted her head and smiled at him, the smile growing more sinister. "You can try!"

  Hong Ye suddenly let go of him and swiftly grabbed the man with the corroded face, directly pulling out the man's heart.

  The man lowered his head, as if looking at the gaping hole in his chest. Then he raised his head again and with that terrifying face, spat out three words to Cheng Chou: "Kill him!"

  Chengzhou stared blankly as Hongye stuffed the whole heart into his mouth.

  The small red leaf chewed on the man's heart while letting out a strange laugh and said: "Do you still want to kill me?"

  Cheng Chou wanted to kill this Red Leaf, but not his son's Red Leaf.

  Hong Ye finished her last bite and slowly tilted her head towards the window.

  Cheng Chou's expression changed, no matter if it was really his mother outside or not, he couldn't just watch her being killed by the fake Hong Ye.

  But his movements couldn't compare to those of Jia Hongye, who had already pounced out the window and grabbed hold of Cheng Mu's neck, giving a defiant smile to Cheng Chou as he twisted with all his might!

  "No——!" Cheng Zhou shouted miserably as he rushed towards the window.

  "Thud!" Cheng Mu's eyes were filled with terror, his entire head hanging at a strange angle from his neck.

  The fake red leaf jumped onto the windowsill and clapped its hands with loud laughter.

  Chengzhou angrily grabbed him with one hand.

  "Do you want to kill me? Come on, try it, hurry up and see if you can kill me!"

  The male corpse on the ground slowly got up, walked to Cheng Chou's back, whispered something in his ear, and finally said heavily: "Kill Hong Ye, otherwise all of this will become a reality."

  A bewildered expression appeared on Chengzhou's face.

  Jia Hongye looked into Cheng Zhou's eyes and suddenly revealed an extremely evil smile. He opened his mouth and slowly said, "Come kill me, come on."

  Cheng Chou's gaze revealed disgust and hatred.

  The fake red leaf grasped his hand and placed it on her own neck, "Do you want to kill me? I know you do. Do you want to use the same way you killed my mother to kill me? Look, how easy it is, just a slight exertion."

  "Crack!" The red leaf's neck was broken.

  "Evil!" The real feeling of twisting a child's neck with his own hands made Cheng Chou unbearable, and the other party still had a red leaf on his face! But... he should have killed this Red Leaf, this Red Leaf deserved to die! He was not wrong, he must kill this Red Leaf!

  Chengzhou looked at the corpse by his feet, his head throbbing with intense pain.

  Kill him... kill Akane... yes, killing Akane will solve everything, he won't be in so much pain anymore, and his mother won't be in danger either...

  I want to kill Red Leaf.

  Chengzhou thought of this, closed his eyes and fell backwards.

  Cheng Zhou's legs kicked out, his whole body shook violently, and he came to.

  The corridor was still the same as before. He sat properly on a plastic chair in the corridor, opposite the door of the examination room... which was half open.

  Cheng Zhou sprang up from the ground.

  "Ah-choo." The door next to it also opened.

  Chengzhou panted heavily.

  He bit his hand hard.

  It hurts! It hurts so much! He even bit his own hand until it bled.

  This is not a dream, this is real.

  "Ka-chunk." Another door opened.

  Cheng Zhou pulled his legs and ran!

  Just as he ran to the stairs, "Hey! What's wrong with you?" Hong Ye came up from the stairs and yelled at him.

  Chengzhou stopped in his tracks, his eyes filled with panic and confusion. "Hongye?" He wanted to bite his hand again, he could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality.

  If it's real, why is everything so similar to what I experienced in my dream just now?

  "What about Situ?" Cheng Zhou asked loudly with a trembling voice.

  Hong Ye gave him a strange glance, walked up to him, pushed him away, peeked out into the corridor, pouted, and then turned back to hold her father's hand.

  Chengzhou shook once and suddenly let go of Hongye's small hand.

  Red leaves eyebrows upside down, what does it mean?!

  "Where is Sito?" Cheng Zhou asked again.

  "I'm here." A voice sounded behind Sito.

  Cheng Zhou was so frightened that he jumped up on the spot. A hand stretched out from behind, quickly pulling him back to prevent him from falling down the stairs.

  Cheng Zhou turned his head and saw that Situ and A'ru, as well as the train conductor, were all standing in the corridor staring at him, with one of Situ's hands still tightly grasping him.

  "Red Leaf..." Cheng Zhou looked at Red Leaf again, looking especially careful. "Come here, let me touch you."

  "What are you touching? You're touching a ghost!" Hong Ye kicked him unhappily. "Look at your bear-like appearance, have you seen a ghost again?"

  Chengzhou actively grasped Hongye's small paws, "Warm... it's hot!" Chengzhou was so excited that he almost cried.

  However, he still had to confirm again, "Hong Ye, how many gold coins are left from what I gave you?"

  Hong Ye frowned and raised her hand to poke his forehead, "This is bad, you're already stupid enough, now your memory is starting to have problems too, are you going to get premature senile dementia?"

  Chengzhou squeezed out a smile that looked like he was about to cry, "Son, I'm begging you, just give me an honest answer to this question and the gold coins are yours..."

  "Hey! I gave it to you, didn't I? Tell me, did you lose the gold coin and now you're trying to frame me?"

  Only his son would dare to speak to him in such a domineering tone! Cheng Zhou was certain, and excitedly hugged Hong Ye, "It's true! This is true! Waaah, I'm scared to death!"

  Red Leaf,"......"

  The author has something to say: I have to say that writing horror stories in the dead of night really tests one's courage, and even a small scary plot can be magnified tenfold... it always feels creepy.

  Thank you for the landmines from Ming, j, Fishy, Qingfeng and others. Thank you for the rocket launcher from Hongyi Bànluò.